Research Blog

Dipa is our newest student in the lab!

Johnny is originally from Indiana, where he grew up surrounded by corn. When Johnny was a kid, he dreamed of moving to Florida to study sharks. Then one day, Johnny realized he loved corals and the terpenes they produce. He is currently pursuing studies of coral terpene biosynthesis. Outside of science, Johnny enjoys playing the violin and modelling.

I joined the lab in October of 2024 and works in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. My experiments focus on the synthetic functionalization of diterpenoids to create a library of semi-synthetic analogs that are then screened for biological activity. Promising compounds undergo chemoproteomic experiments to shed light on the mechanism of action to pursue more target-based drug discovery. As an undergraduate I worked at Moffitt Cancer Center on the design and synthesis of

Originally from New Jersey, Nicole relocated to Florida in 2018 to pursue her undergraduate studies at the University of Tampa, where she earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology and Environmental Science, with minors in Chemistry and Applied Dance. Prior to beginning her graduate studies at the University of South Florida, she worked for two years as an analytical chemist in a NELAC-certified laboratory, conducting metals and microbiological analyses of soil, drinking w

Sian Marin is a second-year PhD student from Belize whose research focuses on marine natural products with an emphasis on organic synthesis. His work centers on elucidating the mechanisms of terpene cyclases and mimicking selective oxidation processes observed in natural products, with the goal of accessing new and potentially more bioactive molecules. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, he conducted research in Dr. Leahy’s laboratory, where he focused on the synthesis o

Erik is a second-year doctoral student whose research focuses on soft coral terpene biosynthesis and genome-encoded cryptic natural products. His work is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach to traditional natural products discovery, integrating spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques with bioinformatics, plasmid engineering for heterologous expression, enzymatic studies, and product diversification. During his undergraduate training at the University of South Florida